Google Play Books for iPhone and iPad updated with support for rented textbooks

Google Play Books has had an update pushed out that lays the way for their textbook rentals. Back at the Nexus 7/Chromecast event in San Francisco, Google confirmed that textbooks would be coming to their own Google Play Books selection. A direct competitor to Apple's own textbook selection available through iBooks, Google also stated that their textbooks would be available on a rental basis and this update adds support for them. Other changes in this latest update include:

Highlighting and note-taking are now supported in scanned pages books.

Added sepia reading mode.

Stability and performance improvements.

Textbooks are obviously a specific niche, but an important one to support. The advantage Google has over Apple's textbooks is that they support a cross-platform – read Android and iOS – model, meaning you'll get the exact same books on your Nexus 7 as on your iPad. Anyone out there looking to get some textbooks from Google before School starts again? How does the rental aspect attract you?

Reader comments

Google Play Books for iPhone and iPad updated with support for rented textbooks

Google is smart to go after this market. It could be the single best time to solidify future, continuous customers. What do pretty much all college students do besides buy text books? They buy new computers and tablets.